But just because they haven’t dated anyone yet doesn’t mean that don’t want to.

Every year in January, Japanese marriage-minded matchmaking service O-net announces the results of a survey of men and women who have turned 20 in the last year (20 being the traditional, and until recently legal, start of adulthood in Japan). The topic of the survey, naturally, is romance, dating, and marriage, and this year’s survey results show a historic low in dating experience among Japan’s new young adults.

The online survey, which collected responses from 170 men and 240 women, starts out with a straightforward question: “Do you have any experience dating someone?” This year, only 53.5 percent of men said they do, which is actually a slight uptick from last year’s figure of 53.1 percent. On the other hand, the similarly small number of women who’ve dated, 53.8 percent, is a massive drop from last year’s 70.2 percent, making the overall portion of 20-year-olds who’ve dated just 53.7 percent, the lowest amount ever since O-net first conducted the survey in 2016.

▼ Percentage of respondents by year who have dated, with lines for men (blue), women (pink), and overall (black)

In regards to their current dating status, 29.4 percent of the guys currently have a girlfriend, once again an increase over last year when only 25.2 percent of surveyed men could make that claim. Only 26.7 percent of women, though, said they have a boyfriend. Not only is this a drop from last year’s 33.7 percent, it also makes this the first time since O-net has began its survey that more men have a steady dating partner than women. The overall figure of 27.8 percent of respondents who are presently dating someone is also down from 29.4 percent last year, and one of the lowest figures in the history of the survey.

▼ Percentage of respondents by year with a current boyfriend/girlfriend

So what’s causing the depressed love life statistics? O-net has a theory. In Japan, students start high school at the age of 15, which means that Japan’s newest batch of 20-year-olds started going to high school in the spring of 2020, right as the coronavirus pandemic swung into full force in Japan. That means that instead of those adolescent hearts racing as they stole fervent glances at their crush from across the classroom or slipped flirty notes into each other’s hands as they passed in the hall, the survey participants were spending many of their youthful high school days sitting at home and taking online lessons. School extracurricular activities, another common environment for love to bloom in, were similarly put on hold during the pandemic, and with fewer socializing opportunities in general, it’s not surprising that a larger number of people made it out of their teen years without dipping their toes in the dating pool, especially since by the time the pandemic was fully over, this year’s 20-year-olds had finished their three years of high school.

▼ “Hey, do you wanna walk home together?” isn’t an option to show your crush you like them if you’re both studying from home.

A lack of dating experience may also explain why the survey respondents also showed a historic low in how many want to get married. When asked about their matrimonial ambitions, 73.2 percent said they either “want to get married soon” or “want to get married someday,” which is the lowest amount since the survey started in 2016. While this could be a reflection of broad social trends and diminishing cultural pressure to get married, it could also just be a product of “Yeah, I wanna get married!” being a bit too much of a stretch to currently make for people who’ve never been on a date.

▼ Percentage of respondents who want to get married

However, this doesn’t mean that love is dead in Japan, so much as it’s been stalled for a while. 51.7 percent of the respondents said they want to actively date, the highest total figure ever for the survey.

▼ 55.3 percent of men said they look forward to actively dating, also an all-time high for the survey, as did 49.2 percent of women.

Another encouraging statistic for romantics? When the respondents who do currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend were asked where they met, the most common answer, from 26.3 percent, was “at my university/specialized school.” So while O-net feels that the pandemic may have diminished this year’s 20-year-olds’ chances of finding love while they were in high school, they’ve apparently still got ample opportunities to find a romantic partner during the rest of their higher education.

Source: PR Times, Abema Times via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: PR Times, Pakutaso
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